January i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



533 



Coffee in Brazil. — This empire claims to possess 

 800,000,000 coffee trees, covering over 2,000,000 acres of 

 land, about -100 trees being planted to each acre. Each 

 tree averages about one pound of marketable coffee per 

 annum. The coffee industry of the empire gives employ- 

 ment to 80U.0U0 persons, mostly slaves. — Planters' Gazette. 

 Precautions Against Tea Adulteration. — No teas 

 impcrted in Queensland will he allowed to go into con- 

 sumption which contain less than 30 per cent, of extract 

 three per cent, of soluble ash, calculated on the dry tea, 

 212° Fahreuheit, or more than eight per cent of total 

 ash. — T. M. King, Collector of Customs, Brisbane, 25th 

 August 1S84. — Indian Tea Gazt tte. 



The Yaluh of Liberian Coffee.— It will be seen that 

 a small parcel of Johore Liberian coffee was sold this 

 week by public sale at 44s to 40s, having been pro- 

 nounced by brokers an unusually tine sample. Only a few 

 days before, a small lot of Liberian, dried in the cherry, 

 was sold at 43s per cwt. being r< quired, it is understood, 

 as seed, and this latter came from South India. The 

 price is equivalent to fully 70s per cwt. for clean nofee. — 

 Planters' Gazette, Nov. 1st. 



Fertilisers. — A prevalent, hut much mistaken, opinion 

 and belief is that salt, lime, and plaster are not fertilisers 

 or manures, but that they exercise some such effect upon 

 plants as stimulants do upon animals, and are, therefore, 

 of questionable value at all times, and sometimes and under 

 some circumstances are positively injurious. This opinion, 

 of course, is only held by persons who do not understand 

 what manures and fertilisers really are, or what plant food 

 is, or how plants are constituted. Manure, in its general 

 sense, is anything that is added to the soil to supply plant 

 food to it. Plant food is any substance that plants require 

 for their growth aud take from the soil for the purpose 

 of building up their tissues. Now, all plants contain chlorine 

 and soda in varying proportions and lime in large quantity. 

 Salt consists of sodium and chlorine, and if the soil is 

 not supplied naturally with these elements in sufficient 

 quantity, salt is indispensable to the growth of crops quite 

 as much as common manure is. — Qtieenslander. 



Tea. — Our Jorhat correspondent writes: — The last week 

 we have been experienceing very warm weather, and the 

 sun has been pouring down his rays with a truly oriental 

 fervour. It has not been favourable for leaf as there has 

 been no rain at all, and the ground is becoming as hard 

 and dry as if it was the month of January rather than Sept- 

 ember. Gardens that are behind now will have little 

 chance of picking up anything to speak of, as the tea 

 season promises to close very early this year. This scorch- 

 ing sun is also detrimental to new clearances, where the 

 young seedlings, if kept too free from jungle and unshaded 

 get burnt up by the heat. The orange bug or beetle has 

 also been very destructive to young plants this season, 

 cutting the tip off and sucking the juice which stunts the 

 plant though not killing it. Altogether it has not been a 

 favourable year lor extensions. Since writing the above we 

 have had some capital showers which will benefit the 

 bushes greatly, though for those who are behind, it is per- 

 haps rather too late to hope to wipe of arrear now. — Indigo 

 and Tea Planter's Gazette. [Has this orange bug been seen 

 in Ceylon. — Ed. 1 



Silk-worm Management in China. — In China, the 

 hatching of the eggs of the silk-worm takes place about the 

 20th of April, and according to Chinese account the rearing 

 should be accomplished, if the weather is warm, say 09° 

 to 74°, in 23 to 24 days. A Chinese work on sericulture 

 is quoted from as follows by a Shanghai exchange : — " If the 

 meals of mulberry leaves be given frequently the worms v. ill 

 advance rapidly to maturity ; and if seldom,- they will be 

 long in arriving at the mature age. If this stage be arrived 

 at in 25 days it is calculated that each hurdle of worms will 

 produce 25 ounces of silk ; if in 28 days then each hurdle 

 will produce only 20 ounces ; but if the worms are a month 

 or 40 days in coming to maturity, then each hurdle will only 

 give ten or a dozen ounces ; when the silk worms fall into 

 and awake from their torpor at irregular iutervals the silk 

 will be deficient iu quality. After the great (fourth) torpor, 

 silk worms only require 15 or 10' meals before they arrive 

 at maturity." And these must be very large ones, as may 

 be judged from the following remark : "When the worms 

 are aroused from their third torpor, put a pound of them 

 in one basket from which yuu will afterward obtain eight 

 pounds' weight of cocooons." — Japan Mail. 



• ? B vt oco AT THE Straits.— Judging by the climate, the 

 rainfall and the nature of the soil aud forest, it appeared 

 as though all products grown iu Ceylon would thrive there. 

 The timber appeared to be of a specially fine character 

 and of large size and well adapted for building purposes. 

 As regards tropical products, Mr. Elphiustone is much im- 

 pressed with the prospects of tobacco cultivation, for which 

 he considers the soil, and in some of the drier districts 

 the climate of Perak admirably suited, as he does the 

 eastern end of the Badulla district, where a fine sample 

 of tobacco used to be grown iu former years, but we are not 

 aware whether it is still produced there. A relative of one 

 of the Penang merchants had not long ago retired with 

 a fortune of £70,000, realized in a little more than five 

 years, made in Sumatra, where the climate is very similar 

 to ours in Badulla. This cultivation is worked by Chinese 

 labor, and it is scarcely necessary to say that it is a cul- 

 tivation in every way suited to them, requiring much care 

 and patience. A tobacco plantation is worked by giving 

 out the ground in one acre plots, which the Chinaman works, 

 and is paid according to the quantity of leaf he brings in. the 

 drying and curing houses, of simple construction, being 

 arranged along one side of the estate.— Local " Times." 



Pine-Afple Cultivation.— A correspondent in the North 

 writes to us to ask how the European market may be best 

 supplied with Queensland pine-apples; and which of the 

 fifty-two cultivated varieties are best suited to the circum- 

 stances of this colony. Queensland pine-apples shipped from 

 here in a cold chamber have arrived in London in a con- 

 dition almost equal to that of fresh gathered fruit. Whether 

 they would do so in every ease is not certain, though the 

 probability is that they would. But they are regularly 

 Shipped home in a preserved state, the entire process of 

 preservation being very economical and simple. The pines 

 are merely peeled, then put into a tin just large enough 

 to hold them and a little water, and a lid with a small 

 hole in it is soldered on. The fruit in the tin is boiled 

 sufficiently to kill fermentation germs and to drive out 

 all the air as much as possible, and then the hole in the 

 lid is closed with a drop of solder, thus rendering the tin 

 air-1 ight. The tins require testing before shipment to make 

 sure they are air-tight, and this is done by putting them 

 into a copper, when if any air-bubbles arise the soldering 

 must be perfected or the contents of the tin will go bad. 

 The best variety of pine to grow for profit is what is 

 known as the Queen pine; it is very prolific, delicious in 

 flavour, and exceedingly hardy. The appliances necessary 

 for turning the leaf into fibre would be costly, and could 

 hardly be worked satisfactorily in connection with growing 

 and preserving the fruit, but 'the latter could be made to' 

 pay handsomely.— Qtieenslander. 



" Descriptions of Exotic Fruits new to Queensland,' 

 by L. A. Bernats, Esq., f. l. s., &c— The plants now bear- 

 ing, for the first time in Queensland. The fruits referred 

 to were — 1st, A Dillenia {D. speeiosa. Thumb, or J>. Indica, 

 Linn.), an inhabitant of India aud the Malay Archipelago. 

 This the author described as an evergreen of ornamental 

 appearance, attaining a height of over 40 ft., and of con- 

 siderable commercial value for its timber alone. The fruit, 

 specimens of which were exhibited, consists of two parts — 1st, 

 a fleshy calyx; 2nd, the fruit proper, composed of several cells 

 growing together around a fleshy centre, each cell con- 

 taining numerous seeds surrounded by a gelatinous pulp. 

 It was said to be employed by natives of India for use in 

 their curries, for jellies and for an acid fever drink. The 

 tree affording material for the paper had proved to be a 

 prolific bearer in the gardens of the Queensland Acclimatis- 

 ation Society, and Mr. Bernays recommended the plant 

 as especially adapted for the rich coast lands of the colony. 

 2nd. A Harpephyttum (U. Oaffrum Bernh., or Spondias 

 Caffira, Weisner), a native of Caffraria, attaining a height 

 of 30 ft., and presenting a rather striking appearance from 

 its terminal bunches of leaves. The fruit consists of a drupe 

 about an inch long, bright crimson when ripe, with a large 

 bony "stone." Though of no value for the table, its pleasant 

 sub-acid flavour would render it a desirable addition to 

 garden produce. The tree from which the specimens of 

 fruit exhibited were derived could be seen growing in the 

 plantations opposite the houses of Parliament. The curious 

 fruits of the dillenia exhibited, though unripe, created some 

 interest. — Queensland) , . 



